The California Air Sources Board (CARB) just lately voted to finalize its Superior Clear Fleets (ACF) rule, a set of rules that requires new medium- and heavy-duty automobiles offered or registered within the state to be zero-emission by 2036, and requires all vans to be zero-emission by 2042.

The rule is a complement to CARB’s Superior Clear Vehicles (ACT, after all) rule, which was adopted in 2020. ACT works from the provision aspect, requiring that producers provide electrical vans, whereas ACF addresses the demand aspect, requiring that business fleet operators purchase a sure variety of electrical vans.

CARB’s vote to approve the brand new measure was unanimous, and so was the reward from EV advocates. The Sierra Membership referred to as approval of the brand new rule “a significant victory for public well being and environmental justice advocates.” InsideEVs mentioned, “We will solely hope the world is watching and others will comply with go well with.”

Not everyone seems to be happy, nevertheless. Trucking companies and commerce teams are rising as sturdy anti-electrification voices. As former Daimler exec and electrical truck advocate Rustam Kocher just lately informed Charged, “This business could be very, very old-school, very, very conservative. You’ll see pushback from them till TCO turns into optimistic working the automobiles.”

Andrew Boyle, First Vice Chair of the American Trucking Associations (ATA) just lately made a speech in entrance of the US Congress, which contained a lot of incorrect statements about EVs. The ATA is a member of the recently-formed Clear Freight Coalition, which lobbies towards clear freight regulation.

ATA President and CEO Chris Spear just lately spoke towards CARB’s approval of the ACF: “Fleets are simply starting to grasp what it takes to efficiently function these vans, however what they’ve discovered thus far is they’re considerably costlier, charging and refueling infrastructure is nonexistent, and ZEVs are usually not essentially a one-for-one substitute—which means extra vans shall be wanted on California roads to maneuver the identical quantity of freight.”

Eric Sauer, CEO of the California Trucking Affiliation, foresees dire outcomes from the ACF regulation: “The one impact ACF implementation could have is that it’ll assure a whole dismantling of our state’s trucking business and have a detrimental impact on items motion and all the provide chain.”

Sauer cited the dearth of charging infrastructure, the provision of electrical vans, the added weight batteries will add to thevehicles, the environmental affect of battery manufacturing, and the detrimental affect on smaller trucking corporations that lack the sources to affect their fleets within the time required.

The issues these gents cite are actual, however removed from insurmountable.

California’s Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Undertaking (HVIP) supplies point-of-sale vouchers to make EVs extra reasonably priced. In response to Southern California-based Tom’s Truck Middle, with a BEV voucher valued between $120,000 and $186,000, a buyer should buy an EV for roughly the identical buy worth as a diesel truck.

Heavy-duty charging infrastructure is presently meager, however a lot of corporations are working to satisfy the anticipated demand (and sure, California presents incentives for infrastructure too). Daimler Truck is constructing a heavy-duty charging community, and truck cease chain Pilot is working with Volvo so as to add charging for Class 8 EVs to its websites. In the meantime, corporations like Zeem Options, WattEV and Terawatt are exploring new enterprise fashions for the heavy-duty charging house.

As for batteries, CATL says it’s going to quickly provide a battery with particular vitality of 500 Wh/kg—double that of a Tesla Mannequin Y—and as Michael Barnard just lately wrote in CleanTechnica, CATL, the world’s largest battery-maker (in contrast to one other well-known EV firm, which nonetheless has a Class 8 EV in service with Pepsico) has a historical past of delivering what it guarantees on time.

Lastly, the ACF guidelines embrace a plethora of exceptions (“loopholes” to EV advocates), together with exemptions if zero-emission vans aren’t obtainable, or if infrastructure set up may delay implementation. Timelines are completely different for various organizations. “Excessive-priority” entities like state and native governments and enormous business operators should comply earlier, however smaller operators and fewer EV-friendly functions similar to long-haul trucking could have extra time. Carriers with 10 or fewer automobiles, or businesses in sure designated counties, shall be exempt from the ZEV buy requirement till 2027.

In reality, so quite a few are the exemptions and carve-outs that CARB estimates that, of the 1.8 million medium- and heavy-duty automobiles now working in California, 532,000 shall be topic to ACF fleet necessities. The regulation focuses on the highest-polluting truck lessons. It would apply to an estimated 67% of Class 7-8 tractors, 52% of Class 4-8 vocational vans, and 12% of Class 2b-3 vans.

Sources: Electrek, Business Service Journal, CleanTechnica